Iris Energy to nearly triple hash rate with estimated 44,000 new BTC miners

Australia-based Bitcoin (

Last November the company was forced to unplug miners used as collateral on a $107.8 million loan, as the units were producing “insufficient cash flow to service their respective debt financing obligations.”

Over the past few months, cryptocurrency miners have been squeezed from multiple directions, having to confront low Bitcoin prices amid high hash rates, high mining difficulty and high energy prices.

The pressure caused publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies to sell off almost all of the BTC mined throughout 2022 with data from blockchain research firm Messari showing Iris sold around 100% of the nearly 2,500 BTC it mined that year.

 A February analysis from Hashrate Index shows that publicly listed miners increased their production in January with better weather and stable electricity prices helping the production surge. Iris’ January production resulted in 172 BTC, compared to 123 BTC in December.